Episode Details

Become a Supporter and the Applied show lands in your feed every week, plus Discourse, where two of this week's arguments are already running.

Doping in South African schoolboy rugby, the end of the track season, and racing in 44 degree heat at the Vuelta. In the news this week:

• (00:02:07) The track and field season is winding down, and the Diamond League final felt a little flat. The Ultimate Championships are next, and in a season where they follow the Diamond League, we wonder what purpose the Diamond League final actually serves?
• (00:10:05) Is the 800m a sprint or an endurance event? Some discussion popped up on Instagram, so we revist the 800m event, get into energy system contribution, why the 1983 world record has survived, and explore why every improvement has come in the first lap, all as part of making the case for the 800m as a sprint-endurance hybrid
• (00:22:49) Jakob Ingebrigtsen calls the Brussels field cowards and losers after Cole Hocker's training partner is put in as a pacemaker. Should a final have pacemakers at all?
• (00:31:08) Rumesh Pathirage wins the javelin, and we wonder why the event has the widest geographic spread in athletics
• (00:36:12) Doping in South African schoolboy rugby, and the perverse incentives that make it so hard to fix. A survey found one in ten schoolboys admitting steroid use, and two thirds said it was to look good rather than to perform. Almost half don't see it as cheating. We discuss the incentives that create toxic culture in many youth sports, with a specific focus on a recent piece on SA schoolboy rugby
• (00:54:12) Triathlete Joe Skipper gets 18 months for three whereabouts failures. We say that being disorganised is no defence
• (00:57:41) 44 degrees at the Vuelta, Matthew Brennan calling out the UCI, and whether shortening a stage or moving the race in the calendar helps
• (01:05:52) Carlos Alcaraz says he'll take longer breaks, tennis has a load management problem, and the one-handed backhand dies after a 149 year run
• (01:19:08) And finally, why can elite powerlifters squat more than they deadlift? Gareth wants your answer on Discourse

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